Christopher Hardy

Thank you so much.

I'm doing very well.

Thank you.

Well, that's because even though you're correct in citing that plants occupy or comprise about 90% of the biomass in nature, many people are blind to that potential source of evidence.

And so it's underutilized.

Typically, forensic investigators are not trained to necessarily see the utility of the plant matter.

But sometimes it's so obvious that they do see and recognize this potential, and that's when I'm contacted.

Here and there, but no, it's certainly not typical.

I do offer one at Millersville, but that's not typical.

And I'll mention that I'm not trained per se as a forensic botanist, and no one really is.

The people that end up being forensic botanists are professors like myself who have a specialization in plant identification or plant taxonomy, because identification of plant matter at a crime scene is the key.

Sure.

Well, if it's a case of a murder, and I can just cite a recent case that I was involved with that wrapped up in 2022, a young lady, 16 years old, was murdered.

Her body was found in a dense woodland in Florida, which is in the southeastern United States.

And it was a very dense woodland.

And so immediately the police recognized the potential for plant evidence.

When they found a suspect, they immediately went to that person's vehicle and found plant matter, leaf fragments in the back of his vehicle.

And that's when they sent that material to me.

Right.

Well, in that case, you know, what you're trying to do if you're working with the prosecution is you're just looking to, you know, the prosecution wants to find a match between what's in the suspect's vehicle and at the crime scene.